Nintendo’s next game console is also a portable gaming tablet (Nintendo Switch)

Nintendo is giving us an early look at the game console that will replace the Wii U. And it looks… unlike anything else on the market right now.

It’s called the Nintendo Switch, and it’s not just a game console that you plug into your TV. It also transforms into a portable gaming tablet.

A video is worth a thousand words though, so take a look at the switching action:

So basically it looks like the guts of the game console are stuffed into a tablet. Put it in a docking station and you can plug the Nintendo Switch into a TV while sitting back on your couch and playing games with a wireless controller.

Want to play while you’re not at your TV? Just slide the gaming buttons off the side s that wireless controller, slide them onto the ends of the tablet, and remove it from your dock.

What you’ve got is a gaming tablet with physical buttons, a reasonably large display, and a battery that keeps you gaming on the go.

The demo video shows that the tablet has a built-in kickstand and headphone jack in case you want to prop up the tablet on a table and detach the gamepads from the sides to use them wirelessly (in an airplane, for instance).

When you get home you can keep playing where you left off by plugging the system back into its dock. There’s also support for multi-player games: you can use multiple wireless controllers with a single Switch… or pair multiple Switches so that more that a group of people can participate in multiplayer games while looking at separate tablets.

It also looks like games will come on tiny cartridges that fit into a slot on the side of the tablet.

While Sony and Microsoft have largely been duking it out in recent years by trying to produce PC-like game consoles with the most processing power, Nintendo has a history of competing with unique ideas (like the motion controls that enabled a new type of experience for the Wii and the Balance Board for Wii Sports and other exercise-oriented activities).

It looks like the Nintendo Switch could be set to carry on that tradition. It’s unlikely this portable gaming tablet will have the same kind of raw horsepower as the next-gen Xbox and Playstation consoles. But it might not need that kind of power to succeed… assuming the price point and list of games compatible with the system are as promising as the demo video.

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Makes me think less of a Wii/WiiU replacement and more of an enhanced Gameboy/3DS type of advancement. Seems more like a docking station to play Gameboy style games on a TV than the other way around.

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Yeah, if this thing has a top of the line processor like let’s say:– 2.5GHz Quadcore A73– 1.0GHz Beefy GPU (10nm)– etc etc

It will be around the graphic’s strength of the Xbox One.That’s awesome for a phone, tablet and even a laptop… but not a gaming laptop.So the graphics should be (a little) (or alot) better than the Wii U.But I expect the graphics to actually fall short of the Xbox One S, PS4, PS4 Pro, Xbox Scorpio.

I hope this thing kills the 3DS soon, that thing’s a complete joke.The 3D simply sucks. The dual screen is a gimmick. The touchscreen is a joke. And the graphics are barely more powerful than a Calculator.

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This looked very interesting to me, but it seems that it won’t be running Android OS, and instead will have a proprietary Nintendo OS. Because of that it seems there will not be the possibility of loading emulators on it, something I was really hoping for, and the main reason I am in the market for a gaming tablet.

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you DO understand that this is a nintendo device, they are not spendling a lot of dev. costs for you to download free roms and play them on it. wow that is one stupid comment

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In regards to comments below: I think where I (apparently) went wrong is I was looking at this product as a gaming tablet that happens to have a dock with which you can display it on a tv/monitor. Not as a console that happens to have some portability.

It was my understanding that the Nintendo Switch is why Nvidia canceled the Shield Tablet 2, so I was hoping the Switch could be a similar product.

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If this were made by NVidia, you would have been right. But this is made by Nintendo, and they don’t get the big buck on the console, they get it on the games. So, obviously anything that could harm the game sales has to go. Hence the proprietary cartridges and connectors.

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It actually does seem to be the spiritual successor to the Shield line. Custom SOC with Tegra technology and custom API for the Switch as well. Most likely ARM architecture so hopefully it has a solid app selection as well to make it an appealing option to other tablets.

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No way Nintendo would ever use Android. If you’re looking for Android tablets with attachable controllers, then they already exist.

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That’s quite obvious, emulators are a big NintenDon’t on a console 🙂 You can buy your old games again and again in each new console as ‘remastered’, ‘HD’ and ‘anniversary’ editions. If you want an emulator, just buy a ~$50 PC-stick or a RasPi3.

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It sounds like you’re more in the market for something like a GPD XD or GPD Win.

Although to be fair, I play just about as many emulated games on my Nintendo DSI as I do my GPD XD.

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I am really excited for this system. I’m glad Nintendo finally has their head on right this time. The Dual-screen of the DS devices was gimmicky, and pointless. Infact, nearly everything Nintendo has done post-Gamecube has been gimmicky.

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as much as i excited for the new console, i still loved the dual screens of the ds. it gave possabilities for so many touch screen based games with stylus (art academy, animal crossing etc.) I hope theyll offer an optional stylus

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Personally, I didn’t like the Dual-screen aspect of the DS. It was a feature that Nintendo seemed to know how to take advantage of, but most developers had no creative or interactive use for.

Most games just put your “health bar” or inventory there. It was worthless, and a waste of battery life for most games.

There was the occasional game that made a really cool purpose of the 2nd screen, but not enough that I would say that the 2nd screen was worth while.

I would have preferred if Nintendo simply stayed with the Gameboy advanced formula. One screen, standard controls.

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I liked the Wiimotes. They were the precursor to the likes of Vive controllers. They really brought a different dimension to games, and made things like arcade shooters in the home possible, and really cool. As the article states, the Wii had a lot of unique features, which I think gave them relevance in the market, not just gimmicky niche appeal.

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Theres no doubt that the Wii remotes were innovative, but they were ultimately a gimmick. It prevented major titles from being ported to the Wii, and it doomed the Wii to be plagued with mini-games and “parlour-trick” games.

The Wii enjoyed reasonable sales from several demographics, but it was never taken seriously by gamers and big-name game developers. The Wii remote was a gimmick that stunted the growth of the system.

Some developers tried to get past the Wii remote. Look at the Goldeneye remake for Wii. They had to bundle a proper controller with the game.

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Agreed.

Also to point out, the GameCube was a gimmick too.They chose underpowered specs, was priced too high compared to the Xbox and discounted PS2 in the market. The cube shape was form over function. It couldn’t play DVDs. The disks were a proprietary disaster.

Even the N64 had a gimmick in the form of the controller. And Nintendo chose not to lead the industry with CD’s and stuck to cartridges, so the original PlayStation also showed what a gimmick it was to blow into the games socket.

The last Nintendo hardware I recall where I actually thought it was a good device without anything tacky/gimmicky was the Gameboy Advance. There is a good reason why the PSP never took off, with the N GBA on the market!!

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I don’t understand why you think the Gamecube was a gimmick. Not one of those points sounds gimmicky.

Those all sound like unattractive aspects of the Gamecube, but the exact opposite of a gimmick.

A gimmick is a feature that is used to attract attention or sales, but really serves little purpose.

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Kind of like this console / portable system (as far as being a gimmick I mean).

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The only thing different between Gimmick and Innovation is success. So we will have to wait to see if it is a gimmick, or not.

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The “gimmick” in the Gamecube was that:– It came from Nintendo, a company that pushed the envelope in-terms of “fastest console” with the NES, SNES, N64– Despite the heritage, the Gamecube’s hardware was not very different to the PS2 and not much more powerful… but increasingly difficult to programme for. The Xbox came out alongside it, and that thing was x2 more powerful AND easier to develop for, which is why it saw games like Doom3, Morrowind and HLF2– Nintendo was scared about “game piracy” so they decided to gimp the DVD disks, but this limited each game to 1.35GB’s so it couldn’t house as many assets as the PS2 or Xbox– The GameCube couldn’t double as a DVD player like the PS2– The GameCube opted for a “small” shape to woo buyers… but at the end very little people care about it, and making it larger so it could… Read more »

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You’ve outlined the Gamecube’s shortcomings well. But nothing about why you think it was a gimmick.

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Well, the premise of your question was flawed to begin with. I may call the second screen of the Nintendo DS/DSi/3DS/2DS a gimmick… but you can go forth and say “that’s the way it was envisioned, it is a feature, I fail to see how it is a gimmick”. The GameCube device was built around the concept of using cheap internal hardware, despite retail selling expensive, and using a gimped DVD disk system. It was also meant to woo 3rd-party developers to Nintendo’s new gaming API’s… but they were too immature/weird. That’s why developers went back to Sony’s also-weird EmotionEngine because development was making sense and becoming easier. That’s why half of the early titles for the GameCube looked great because people spent months and months fitting it all together, whereas the other half was like “okay this thing should theoretically push all these at once, but I can only… Read more »

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The dual screens on the DS/3DS are very nice to use if you play jrpgs frequently.

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The big question is that whether that dock is proprietary or whether you can get an HDMI adapter for it. I mean for a portable gaming device, you should be able to go to your friends house and play on their tv without lugging that gigantic dock.

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It’s Nintendo we’re talking about. Almost every connector and card reader will be a proprietary format. I bet you’ll have to carry some proprietary charger to charge it while mobile to. Can’t use that universal USB charger.

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Didn’t see it mentioned here, it was confirmed that it is using custom Nvidia hardware. I believed the rumors to that effect.

The device looks well designed in the video and the concept is good. Surprised by the branding a bit, specifically no sign of the traditional Nintendo logo on the dock.

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This is still a concept.

Expect minor and major changes to come.Minor changes: cosmetic logos, availability, or even pricing.Major changes: large design changes, downgrade the SoC to something weaker/cheaper/more readily available etc etc

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In 5 months? The trailer reconfirmed that the Switch is slated to launch in March.

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Doesn’t matter, it’s still a concept device.

Remember the launch of the Xbox One?So many little minor and major changes, back-peddling to catch up to the PS4 that it literally left the crown for the PS4 for the North American market.

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Honestly I was hoping for something radical, that would excite the public much like the Wii did. Like an augmented reality console, and the killer app would be an AR Mario game. Imagine controlling Mario through the Koopa kingdom environment as it appears on your living room coffee table, as you wear visors like the Microsoft HoloLens, and controlling the game using standard gamepad controllers.

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That type of gaming hardware is still way too expensive for a mainstream Nintendo gaming console, not to mention that such concepts still a ways off from being fully cooked. It would have been an incredible risk for Nintendo to release anything remotely like that. We’re at least another two generations away still.

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So this is a portable Wii that can be docked but now with a standard controller mechanism…

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that was a really good advertisement, except for the last bit. that bit was a bit i dont know.. cheesy i guess. But all in all, will definitely make the average consumer want to go out and purchase the Switch

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